Osprey deaths baffle biologists

What’s killing ospreys in northern Pinellas County? That’s what state biologists and Audubon members want to know after at least a dozen young ospreys have turned up dead in the past two weeks. For ten years, a pair of ospreys have raised their young in a dead tree in Laura Collins’ yard on Stevensons Creek in north Clearwater. “You get to see all aspects of it, when they’re young, what the parents do. It’s just an amazing bird,” Collins says. Collins says this year’s two fledglings were actively fishing and flying around until a couple of weeks ago, when one was found dead under a tree in her next door neighbor’s yard. Then the second one also perished. “Over the holiday weekend, Saturday, one of the other babies was found on the ground, dead,” says Collins. Barb Walker of Clearwater Audubon’s Osprey Watch is worried. She says all 12 dead ospreys have been found in the north Clearwater/Dunedin/Tarpon Springs area and rescuers are reporting finding birds in poor condition. “They’re severely emaciated. They’re dehydrated. They’ve starved to death and when you have citizens that say ‘but I’ve been watching them eating,’

then you have to wonder what’s going on biologically,” says Walker. Collins wonders if what killed the ospreys had anything to do with the loss of her cat, Nango. Only 3 years old, he was found dead in her neighbor’s yard, in the same area as one of the dead birds. “Whether it’s coincidental or linked to it, I don’t know,” says Collins. “But when you have so many things that are right by the water…it kind of just raises a question.” For now there are lots of questions and no answers. An osprey carcass sent to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission Conservation lab in Gainesville earlier this week was too deteriorated to necropsy. Two more carcasses have been sent to the lab, but it’ll be at least a few days until they’ll know anything, and toxicology tests can take even longer. In the meantime, Walker would like to hear from anyone who finds a dead osprey, and urges that if you see a sick or weakened bird, to contact Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary at (727) 391-6211.

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Osprey deaths baffle biologists

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